Pages

Monday, August 27, 2018

Great Outdoors Blog Hop with Island Batik - Globetrotter

Welcome to the Island Batik Ambassadors Great Outdoors Blog hop!

It's my day to share with you the project I made as an Island Batik Ambassador starring the Globetrotter line. I was blown away by the variety and intensity of color in this line. So gorgeous, and the fun globes, luggage and world landmarks add great interest to them!

One of my goals as an Island Batik Ambassador this year was to create a bed size quilt with the fabric I received, so I knew this was my opportunity to come up with a great large scale project! And with so many different fabrics, it really played into my love of a good scrappy project.

Well, if you know me at all, you know that I have a definite thing for all things Paris - so that was my inspiration for my project. It took me a lot of thinking, and playing around with these fabrics trying to figure out what to do. Maybe something like this lovely tile floor?

I started cutting some triangles, and sewing them together, thinking that maybe I could come up with a kind of mosaic or tile design and decided that I loved mixing up all the fabrics together.

Keeping it simple and sticking to triangles in light/dark pairs seemed to work best, and would make a great border so I can do something that really stands out in the center. The addition of a three part border with the dark "blurple" globes and a bit more of the fabric I used for the background of the center set it off beautifully.

It's so big it doesn't fit on my swing! Are you curious to see what I did with the center of the quilt yet? Or have you guessed?
.
.
.
.
.
You see, I definitely had the perfect inspiration for the center of my quilt!
.
.
.
.
.

The Eiffel Tower! Yes, it's great, and it's outdoors - what could be more perfect? I even had a pattern to use. (unfortunately, it's now out of print, so I can't pass a link for it along.) "La Tour Eiffel" by Metropolitan Quilt.

As you can see in the picture, the Eiffel Tower is actually a lovely soft brown - so I chose this fabric for the tower:

So gorgous! I love the results, but you can see how much work it was to cut out! It only took a half yard to cut it out in three different sections, but it was close.

And here is the finished quilt with the triangle borders:

Well - as you can see one of the challenges of making a queen size quilt is being able to take a decent photograph of it! Outside on the lawn.

Here it is on my bed:

I love how the quilting shows in this picture! I used the Hobbs Thermore batting in this quilt that was sent in my ambassador box, and it was perfect. It's so light and thin that it really makes machine quilting a large quilt on a domestic machine a piece of cake. I also used some of the Aurifil thread I received for this - a light and medium brown, both in 50 wt. I stitched all around the edges of the tower, then did a hook and swirl in the background around it. For the triangles I stitched 1/4 inch on each side of the seams - I thought this would echo the gridwork look of the tower. The border got loops and more swirls. Here's a peak at the quilting from the back side:

This quilt is the perfect size for a queen size bed, so I can say that I officially met the challenge that I set for myself.

And aren't the colors just gorgeous? Frankly I was a little worried about how they would play together, but as I often say, one of the nice things about working with batiks is the way that they blend together and always look great!

Would you like a chance to play with all these fun colors? I've cut 3 sets of 5 inch squares to give away. Anyone can enter, I will ship internationally for this one! I have a plan for a little project with these, so the winners might have to keep their eyes open for ideas on how to use them next month.

Make sure you leave a comment when you visit the blogs - we love knowing that our friends are visiting and enjoying our projects and posts. And don't forget to tell your local quilt shop which of these lines from Island Batik you would like them to carry. Thanks for visiting my blog!

I think batiks come in such a great variety of colors & prints that they make up beautiful quilts. Your quilt is great and I can't believe you used your domestic machine to quilt it. Great job!petuniakr@aol.com

Your Eiffel Tower is amazing and I love the scrappy colors combos in the border. I love working with batiks because of the variety of the colors and the crispness of the fabrics. Thanks for sharing. grinnie1961 at gmail dot com

oh my your quilt is gorgeous. and the center piece is fantastic. thank you for sharing and inspiring today. i really love the feel of these fabrics while working with them. they are so rich and lovely in what ever pattern.quilting dash lady at comcast dot net

Your choice of fabric for the Eiffel Tower is absolutely prefect. I love working with batiks for their vibrant colours, wonderful tone on tone patterns and the fact that they don't fray. Thanks for sharing.

I love your quilt! The Eiffel Tower cut out is amazing, much more than I could ever do. I have not used batiks much yet but I love how the fabrics blend together so beautifully. I have a project waiting for me using batiks and I am anxious to get started.

My favourite thing about batiks is the depth of colour. That and the higher thread count of the fabric. But the colour comes out on top. I just adore looking at batiks. Your quilt is so lovely! And I always love reading about quilt bloggers who quilt on a domestic machine - it seems so many have gone longarm, but that is out of reach for most of us. It's good to be reminded that bed sized quilts are totally quiltable on home machines!

Batiks are my #1 choice for any quilt or other sewing project, and your design shows those off to an amazing finish. The centre, wow, that is superb. The mosaic look is so right with the tower, and the border, a super size on your own bed. Not one to be tucked away, but on show every day.

i love the rich colors of batiks. I have been using them for several years, especially when I am taking a mystery class. I find I am drawn to the batik section of any quilt shop I visit. Your quilt is beautiful and I like that the border is so simple yet so looks intricate.

Ohh ahh! I love your quilt! And I like the way you surprised your readers in the blog post with the reveal of the center! I love batiks for their painterly appearance and crisp, nonraveling edges. Thanks for the inspiration!

Oh my! That Eiffel Tower is awesome...and it looks very hard! You did a spectacular job on it. The thing that I like most about batiks is that they don't ravel a lot. Hmmmm...or maybe it is the beautiful colors.

Monkey Around

Find me:

My Favorite Quilt Block

Follow by Email

Follow this blog with bloglovin

Subscribe To

About Me

Hi! I am Pamela Boatright. I've always wanted to be a writer, and love quilting so this is the space where I get to put both of my interests together! I also enjoy teaching and creating original projects, so this is a great place for sharing those. I hope you enjoy your visit here and are inspired to go create something beautiful and useful!